scholarly journals More Effort, Less Fatigue: The Role of Interest in Increasing Effort and Reducing Mental Fatigue

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Milyavskaya ◽  
Brian M. Galla ◽  
Michael Inzlicht ◽  
Angela L. Duckworth

People generally prefer easier over more difficult mental tasks. Using two different adaptations of a demand selection task, we show that interest can influence this effect, such that participants choose options with a higher cognitive workload. Interest was also associated with lower feelings of fatigue. In two studies, participants (N = 63 and N = 158) repeatedly made a choice between completing a difficult or easy math problem. Results show that liking math predicts choosing more difficult (vs. easy) math problems (even after controlling for perceived math skill). Two additional studies used the Academic Diligence Task (Galla et al., 2014), where high school students (N = 447 and N = 884) could toggle between a math task and playing a video game/watching videos. In these studies, we again find that math interest relates to greater proportion of time spent on the math problems. Three of these four studies also examined perceived fatigue, finding that interest relates to lower fatigue. An internal meta-analysis of the four studies finds a small but robust effect of interest on both the willingness to exert greater effort and the experience of less fatigue (despite engaging in more effort).

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Milyavskaya ◽  
Brian Galla ◽  
Michael Inzlicht ◽  
Angela Duckworth

*Draft version 10/26/18 submitted for peer review. Please do not circulate or cite without author's permission* Recent research has proposed that the ‘law of less work’ holds for cognitive work (Kool, McGuire, Rosen, & Botvinick, 2010), with people preferring easier over more difficult cognitive tasks. Using two different adaptations of a demand selection task, we show that interest, but not self-efficacy, can influence this effect, such that participants make more choices that involve cognitive work. Interest was also associated with lower feelings of fatigue. In two studies, participants (N=63 and N=158) repeatedly made a choice between completing a difficult or easy math problem. Results show that liking math (but not perceived math skill) predicts choosing more difficult (vs. easy) math problems. Two more studies use the Academic Diligence Task (Galla et al., 2014) where high school students (N=447 and N=884) could toggle between a math task and playing a video game/watching videos. In these studies, we again find that math interest relates to greater proportion of time spent on the math problems. Three of these four studies also examined perceived fatigue, finding that interest relates to lower fatigue. An internal meta-analysis of the four studies finds a small but robust effect of interest on both the willingness to exert greater effort, and the experience of less fatigue (despite engaging in more effort). The meta-analytical effect of self-efficacy on effort exertion and fatigue is non-significant.


Author(s):  
Thu Ngo ◽  
Len Unsworth ◽  
Michele Herrington

AbstractStudents’ difficulties interpreting diagrams remain a concern in science education. Research about improving diagram comprehension has included few studies of teachers’ orchestration of language and gesture in explaining diagrams—and very few in senior high schools. Research with younger students and studies of research scientists’ practice indicate the significance of the interaction of teachers’ gesture and language in explaining visualisations. The strategic deployment of such teacher-focussed authoritative explanations has been observed in facilitating progression to more complex and symbolic representations in classroom work. However, the paucity of such research in senior high school leaves open the question of how these teachers use gesture and language in managing the challenges of explaining the intricate sub-microscopic and abstract visualisations senior high school students need to negotiate. In this paper, we outline existing studies of teachers’ use of gesture and language to explain complex images in senior high school and investigate how it is managed by two biology teachers with images of different types and complexity representing the activity of certain cell components in the early phase of cell duplication. Implications are drawn for foci of further research including the role of a metalanguage describing different types of visualisations and their affordances.


1976 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 655-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
George W. Kelling ◽  
Rhea Zirkes ◽  
Deena Myerowitz

Advisers are expected to be cautious. Typical instructions in research on risky shift induce the adviser role. However, subjects may take the role of the story's hero when they can identify with the hero. It is acceptable for people to be daring when acting for themselves. This hypothesis of a switch of set predicts that subjects should consider themselves more risky than the majority of their peers, a way of expressing the value of risk, when they are similar to the story's hero. High school students rated themselves and the majority on stories dealing with situations common to their age group and on stories dealing with adult problems. Sex of hero was also manipulated. Results supported the hypothesis of a switch of set. Subjects displaced themselves more when the situation was similar to those they might face; in addition, subjects displaced themselves more when the story's hero was of their sex. No sex differences in general tendency to risky displacement were found.


2021 ◽  
pp. 082957352110347
Author(s):  
Luis Francisco Vargas-Madriz ◽  
Chiaki Konishi

Canada’s high school graduation rates are still low when compared to other members of the OECD. Previous studies have found academic involvement is associated with positive trajectories toward graduation, that social support promotes student engagement, and that school belonging could mediate this relationship. Still, little is known about the specificity of such mediation, especially in Québec. Therefore, this study examined the role of belonging as mediator of the relationship between social support and academic involvement. Participants ( N = 238) were high-school students from the Greater Montréal Area. All variables were measured by the School-Climate Questionnaire. Results from hierarchical multiple regressions indicated parental support had a direct relationship, whereas peer and teacher support had a mediated relationship by school belonging with academic involvement. Results highlight the critical role of school belonging in promoting academic involvement in relation to social support.


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Leni Raemen ◽  
Koen Luyckx ◽  
Nina Palmeroni ◽  
Margaux Verschueren ◽  
Amarendra Gandhi ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Donovan

In the Australian education system, there are substantial class inequalities in educational outcomes and transitions. These inequalities persist despite increased choice and individual opportunity for young people. This article explores high school students’ experiences of class in a social context they largely believe to be a meritocracy. Specifically, it asks: how does class shape young people’s thinking and decision-making about their post-school futures? I use Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’ as a frame to understand the role of class in young people’s lives, stressing its generative and heterogeneous aspects. Drawing on qualitative-led mixed methods research, this article argues that young people have internalised the ‘doxa’ of meritocracy, agency and ambition, conceiving of themselves as individual agents in this context. However, risk and security, opportunities and constraints, are not distributed equally in a class-stratified society. Young people from working-class backgrounds more commonly imagine insecure, uncertain futures.


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